Butterfly Farm

Costa Rica, September 5, 2006

Greta nero

Seeing this transparent-winged butterfly was one of my main goals in coming to the Butterfly Farm. I had seen pictures of it, but had never seen it live. It was amazing.

This shows the transparency of the wing better. You can clearly see a background leaf through the wing.

Even though the leaf is not beautiful, I liked this shot because the hole in the leaf behind the greta's transparent wing is a clearly visible feature through both wings.

This picture was quite educational for me. With a total accumulated lifetime experience of about an hour with the transparent-winged Greta nero, I thought I understood it to be reclusive, hanging in the shade and the back corners. But here it was bellying up to the banana slice and digging in along with the big boys like the gregarious blue morpho. Sigh! You just can't become an expert on a butterfly in just one hour.